Will my Incredible ever work properly again?

Question

I have devoted endless time and energy to trying to get my phone to work since the system updates started appearing.  I should note that I am not a techie, I don't enjoy fiddling with electronics,  and I can't follow many of the fixes that people have posted. I just want my phone to work as reliably as it used to! The issues I have experienced have been well documented in every discussion group I have visited.  Some -- but not all of these included: false warnings about memory shortages, phone turning off, voice searches not working while in the car, gmail not working on phone.  When I tried deleting music and pictures and then restarting the phone, I got stuck in one of those endless "DROID!" startup loops.  I made an emergency trip to a Verizon store, and the salesman said that my phone had never received the update properly -- thus the repeated smaller update messages -- and a factory reset would fix that issue.  He did get the update to install; but, of course, I then had to reinstall all my apps, preferences, etc. Since then, gmail and voice searches are working again, but I continue to have strange and frustrating problems. The radio shuts off at random, which it never used to. For about a week, even the phone qua phone would not work. I could not dial a number by touching a contact or a listing in my call record.  I had to go into View contact and select the number I wanted.  That's what I had to do on my old "stupid" phone.  Three days ago, without any intervention, the phone started to behave normally again.  But then about 36 hours ago all my pictures and music vanished from the phone without a trace.  WHAT's NEXT?!  This phone is supposed to make my life easier; instead it has became an anxiety-provoking pain. FYI: I have software number 4.08.605.2 and Android Version 2.3.4

Answer 1

Hi berkeleywalker,
I understand your discontent. I can assure you that all software updates developed by the manufacturer are intended to make your phone work better. Since you have done a Factory Reset and your phone continues to experience performance issues after you installed your applications, I recommend running your phone in Safe Mode for a while to ensure that no third party application conflicts exist. If your phone works properly in Safe Mode then a third party application conflict is causing your phone to malfunction and the conflicting application must be identified and removed from your phone.
There is no easy way to identify a conflicting 3rd party application, the only way is to remove all applications and add one by one and test until the conflicting app is identified and then removed for good.
AntonioC_VZWSupport
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